Welcome back to Stars of the Week at CanucksArmy! Every week, we’ll be bringing you our Top Three best and brightest performers on the Vancouver Canucks that week. Disagree with our picks or have your own stars to nominate? Let us know in the comments below!
With the postseason beginning to look like an increasingly unrealistic goal for the Vancouver Canucks, what exactly are they still playing for in their remaining 12 games? For glory? Definitely not. Out of spite? A little bit. For redemption? Sure.
The team had some momentum at the start of this week, following an exhilarating yet baffling win against the Winnipeg Jets. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to capitalize on this push any further. They came up just short and ended up with a pity point in an overtime loss against the St. Louis Blues, and they had an absolutely torturous and irrational loss against the New York Rangers. Torturous because it started at 10 AM on a Saturday – this game very well might have ruined your brunch – and irrational because the Rangers scored 5 goals on just 12 shots. The Canucks had 3 goals on 39 shots. Vancouver was effectively “Igor Shesterkin-d,” which is well on its way to being a functional verb. 
The team has been looking more confident in shooting, certainly more than they did over the winter, but the wins just have not been coming up for them. Despite the perpetual monkey on their backs, let’s look at who showed up for the team this week.

Brock Boeser

Brock Boeser made it through the Trade Deadline as a Canuck – although, he has since said it was one of the longest weeks of his life thus far. Currently, he is still set to become a UFA this summer.
Boeser has not been able to play to last year’s career-high 40-goal season, and he has been struggling even further after the departure of J.T. Miller. This week might have just been his light at the end of the tunnel. 
Boeser has suddenly woken up and remembered his role as a scoring winger and actually played like he deserved his first-line spot. He showed up for the team in crucial moments, not just once, but several times across three games. His 6 point week might just be the definition of clutch: 2 goals and 1 assist to lead the Canucks to a 6-2 clobbering of the Jets, 2 goals against the St. Louis Blues including a crucial game-tying goal, and another goal against the Rangers. St. Louis also saw him score his 200th career NHL goal – every single one as a member of the Canucks, since he was drafted in 2015. He’s shown tenacity, resilience, skill, and immense loyalty, as he always has.
Playing on the top line alongside Nils Hoglander and Elias Pettersson has proven fruitful for Boeser. This momentum is now in question, however, following Hoglander and Pettersson’s uncertain injury statuses. 
Brock Boeser has been putting up the kind of performance that makes you want to beg Patrik Allvin, Jim Rutherford and co. to meet the dollar amount Boeser and his agent are looking for in his next contract, or at least try to. If the Canucks cannot or will not do this, then the final stretch of the season gives Boeser the perfect opportunity to attract the lucky teams set to compete over him once he reaches free agency. It’s Brock Boeser’s world, and we’re just living in it – for the next few weeks, at least.

Kiefer Sherwood

Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser were not the only players to hit milestones this week – Kiefer Sherwood literally hit one. 
Against the New York Rangers on Saturday, Sherwood broke the record for hits in a single NHL season. This was hit 384 – he would finish the game with 12 hits, which now has him securely in the single-season lead with 395. As if designed by fate, Sherwood’s record-breaking hit came against his former teammate Carson Soucy, who was traded to the Rangers at the Trade Deadline just weeks ago.
Other than his impressive hits feat, one that many fans have been counting towards all season, Sherwood also has a goal and an assist this week. Once again, Sherwood has proven to be one of the best free-agency signings the Canucks have made in recent years.

Quinn Hughes 

Since January 31st, the Canucks have played 19 games – this time period also accounts for the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Hughes has only played in 9 of those games due to injury, presumably the same lingering oblique muscle issue that saw him forfeit his Team USA spot for 4 Nations. It is clearer than ever that Hughes is not playing at 100% health, but has resolved to finish off the season regardless. The team should thank their lucky stars that Quinn Hughes playing at less than 100% can be just as effective as others playing at 150% strength. 
This week, Hughes has topped his teammates in ice time in every single game, his lowest turnout being 25:52 against Winnipeg, and he played over 30 minutes against St. Louis. This would be a lot for anyone, even if they weren’t playing through an injury in a season full of statistical horrors for his team. He’s been finding the scoresheet during these multitudes of shifts, too. He has 4 points in 3 games this week, and that’s coming off goals in back-to-back games last week, at that. 
The third star of the week also finished off with a milestone. Hughes hit 400 career points this weekend against the Rangers, with a powerful shot outside of net-front traffic that Dakota Joshua was able to capitalize on to open the scoring. 
If only the game had gone Vancouver’s way. The Canucks may have just wasted a season of record-breaking feats from the reigning Norris Trophy winner.
Sponsored by bet365